Automatic medicinal vaporizer



March 13, 1934. STEPHENSON 1,950,577

AUTOMATIC MEDICINAL VAPORIZER Filed 001?. 30, 1931 j i/ Q i 1 I l 2 i i :5 i it i i I l I I I it) 0 C) INVENTOR. TH OMA s Bfirlgpfims M A TTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 13, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT orrica AUTOMATIC MEDICINAL VAPORIZER sachusetts Application October 30, 1931, Serial No. 572,016

2 Claims.

The present invention is an improved vaporizer or atomizer. It embodies various features of construction and modes of operation which are described in their preferred form for purposes of disclosure and illustration. The general idea is to provide a device to heat a liquid and make a vapor, to pass this vapor under its own pressure through a second liquid to heat and pick up vapor from the latter and then pass the two mixed vapors to a delivery outlet for immediate use. The first liquid may be water and the second liquid may be any kind suitable for spraying the nose or throat and for inhaling. The invention is especially designed as a means for producing heated vapors in the treatment of nose, throat, and lung troubles.

The particulars of the invention will be clear from the accompanying drawing and following description.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the vaporizer;

Fig. 2 is a top View of the cover portion of the larger receptacle or bottle in Fig. 1 with accessories removed; and

Fig. 3 is a top view of the smaller receptacle or bottle of Fig. 1 with accessories in place.

The structure shown is in a form of the invention at present preferred, although many changes may be made in its particulars and yet retain the spirit of the invention. This structure consists in a portable base stand 1 of sheet metal forming a hollow shell, having a handle 2, and ventilating holes 3. The idea of such a stand is to hold the heated parts above any surface on which the stand rests and to avoid substantial heat transfer to the bottom rim of the stand. In this stand 1 two receptacles 4 and 5 are held above its base portion. For this purpose two sockets 6 and '7 made with sheet metal boundaries are specially formed on the stand to removably hold the two receptacles 4 and 5.

The stand 1 with its two sockets are arranged somewhat like a candle holder and the idea is to have the heated elements portable with the stand and so the whole can be safely placed around the home anywhere desired, just as a candle stick would be. I prefer to have the bottom of socket 6 below the bottom of socket '7 so as to hold the smaller bottle 5 offset with respect to the larger bottle 4, as this enables me 50 to keep some of the parts lower than otherwise would be convenient.

The larger receptacle 4 of glass has a tight cover '7 screwed on the top like a preserve jar. This cover has extending through it, two terminal posts 8. These are the outside terminals of an electric heating device 9 carried by cover '7 and whose electrodes 10 and 11 are shown all inside the receptacle or bottle 4. The electrodes are at the bottom part as they are normally immersed in liquid.

In Fig. l the plug 12 is shown removably placed on terminals 9 and connected to the pair of flexible wires 13, the other end of which (not shown) has a portable connection to plug in at any electric outlet. It will be understood that 35 the plug 12 can be readily pulled off terminal posts 3 in the cover and when the latter is taken off the bottle 4, the electric heating device 9 is entirely removed by lifting the cover to which it is attached.

The cover 7 also has extending from the top two short pipe sections 14 and 15. These are sealed in the cover and fluids can pass through the pipes and cover to and from bottle 4. Section 14 has a slip joint surface at the top to receive with a friction fit the enlarged end of goose neck pipe section 16 and section 15 has a like surface to receive a cover cap 1'7. Pipe 16 and cap 1''] can each be readily connected or disconnected from sections 14 and 15 by merely pushing and pulling them into or out of connection by hand. This arrangement it is clear makes it easy for the user to quickly dis-' connect or connect the desired parts from bottle 4 or its cover without any tools.

The smaller receptacle or bottle 5 has a cover 1'7 screwed on like cover '7 for sealing purposes like a preserve jar cover. Goose neck pipe 16 extends (with a tight joint) through cover 1'7 (to which it is fastened for permanent support) and ends slightly above the bottom of receptacle or bottle 5 so as to have its open end normally below liquid in this bottle. The pipe 16 has one or more holes 18 in it and located a little below cover 1'7 for a purpose to be described. Cover 1'7 has a delivery spout 19 fastened to it for vapors from bottle 5. It also has an upstanding stub pipe 20 fastened to and passing through cover 1'7 with a cover cap 21, just like pipe section 15 and cap 1'7 on cover '7. The cap 21 has a friction fit and can be readily taken off and put on.

A friction joint surface 22 at the end of delivery spout 19 is designed to take a metal or flexible extension pipe (not shown) to guide vapors to a distance from the device (for example, to a point under a sheet or hood put over the head of a patient) when desired. The delivery spout or its extension may be provided corrode the immersed heater.

with a removable nose or mouth fitting piece.

The structure has been described and now its various and useful modes of operation will be described. With the parts assembled as in Fig. 1, water is poured into bottle 4 through pipe 15, with cap I? removed, until the bottle is about half full, when the cap 17 is replaced. Any desired solution for spraying the nose and tln'oat or for inhaling purposes, is poured into bottle 5 through pipe 20, until the bottom portion of pipe 16 is covered, and then cap 21 is put on or replaced. The current is then turned on in heater 9. The water in bottle 4 soon starts to boil, being heated by electrodes 10 and 11, steam quickly collects in the upper part of the bottle, its own pressure feeds the steam through pipe 14 into goose neck pipe 16 and with sufficient force to break through the liquid seal at the bottom portion of pipe 16 in bottle 5. The steam bubbles through the spray solution in bottle 5, heats the solution and causes its vapor to thoroughly mix with the steam, and this mixture collects in the space at the upper part of bottle 5, above the steam agitated liquid. From this space, the mixed vapors under their own pressure are driven out in a continuous unbroken stream through delivery spout 19 as in a boiling tea kettle. The delivery spout 19 is preferably made converging so that the vapor stream has a desirable velocity at the outlet, even though only small vapor pressure is in bottle 5.

It will be clear that with the electric heater 9 in bottle 4, the heat supplied to bottle 5 is from end .the steam produced in bottle 4 passing over pipe 16 and bubbling through the liquid solution in bottle 5. Some of the steam will be condensed, not only in the liquid but also in the mixing space above the liquid. The result is that the spray passing through the delivery spout is not too hot as the bottle 5 has in part operated as a condenser. The steam from bottle 4 may be too hot for spray purposes but after it passes through bottle 5 its temperature is necessarily 1 lowered and the mixed spray from the two bottles is a wet and heated mixture and with very small globules of the spray solution blown along the delivery outlet by the vapor pressure flow. This gives the atomizing result as ,1 well as a vaporizing effect on the liquid in bottle 5. For example, if it is an oil spray solution in bottle 5, fine globules of the oil will be thrown above the liquid surface by the steam bubbling through and these can be carried along by the steam as atomized liquid, in addition to the part of the oil that is actually vaporized. This is of real advantage as in the treatment of nose, throat, and lungs, the heated vapor will penetrate the tissues more than the atomized liquid but the latter is desirable for laying on the surface of the tissues and to cool the vapor just before application.

One feature of the device that is of particular importance in its mode of operation is the formation of the propellant vapor (as steam) in the bottle 4 apart or separated from the formation of the propelled vapor in the bottle 5. By this arrangement the electric heater 9 operates to heat a liquid (as water) chosen for the purpose of avoiding any troubles with the electric heating elements such as the electrodes 10 and 11. For contrast, if the electric heater were immersed in many of the chemical preparations desirable for medicinal sprays they would quickly But with the arrangement herein disclosed there is no chance whatever of heating troubles due to the action of any medicinal or chemical solution one wants to use. Whatever is wanted can be put in the glass bottle 5, heated and automatically atomized by the mere vapor produced in bottle '7, and the immersion heater 9 in bottle 7 is saved from ever getting into trouble due to what is put in bottle 5.

Upon the cooling of the device after use there is a tendency for the contents of bottle 5 to siphon through goose neck 16 into bottle 4 because the latter has a negative (or condenser) pressure when its steam contents are cooled. This siphoning tendency is stopped by the provision of one or more holes as 18 in pipe 16 a little below cover 17 where the space has free access to atmospheric pressure. The area of hole 18 (or holes 18) is chosen so as to be just about enough to prevent the siphon action taking place. But this hole 18 has an additional advantage while the apparatus is being used. It provides a restricted outlet for a part of the propellant vapor to join the mixed vapors above the liquid in bottle 5 without the necessity of bubbling up through the liquid. The latter has a definite cooling action which condenses a part of the propellant vapor. By letting in hotter vapor above the liquid this loss of heat is partially compensated. The vapors of this device, since they are designed for human consumption cannot of course go much above the temperature of condensation. The question of getting the vapors through the apparatus in prime condition for human application at just about the right temperature is of course im portant. The function of hole 18 helps in the way described.

There is an advantage in having both bottles 4 and 5 of transparent glass. In the arrangement shown one can see constantly how the Whole operation is going on. The sick person being treated is helped mentally by the activities of the device in his behalf. But in addition to this, it is quite desirable from the nature of the functions being carried on to watch them. For example, the device is portable and is not wanted too large. If a patient is to be treated (as in croup) for twenty minutes every two hours the portable device may need to be replenished with liquids even during a single treatment. This is the way is can be done without any substantial interruption of the treatment: The heating element can be instantly rendered inoperative by raising plug 12 from posts 8, cap 17 is removed and water poured in pipe 15 with a funnel or syringe. Lowering plug 12 and replacing cap 17 takes but a moment. The solution in bottle 5 may need strengthening (it is being weakened in operation by condensed propellant vapor) and the removal of cover cap 21 and an injection of strong solution from a medicine dropper takes but an instants time' The full view of the condition and amount of both liquids during the operation of the device shows when it is It is customary in many spraying or vaporizing treatments to spray the patient first with one solution and then another. My device is designed to do this with a minimum amount of trouble. For example, the bottle 5, its cover and associated parts all move as a unit: They can all be lifted out of the device together by simply lifting bottle 5 out of socket 6. The friction pipe joint between goose neck 18 and pipe outlet 1a of bottle 4 permits this. Then an exact duplicate (which may be carried on stand 1, angularly spaced from the one shown) but with a different medicinal solution in it can be placed in socket 6 and have its goose neck pipe 16 slip jointed to pipe 14 of bottle l.

The advantage of this change is more than in the saving of having the complete device duplicated. The one that is first used is all hot and with steam up, ready to serve the patient. By changing the solution through a sub stitution of bottle 5, the operation of changing the kind or spray solution in my device is about as simpl and as quick as changing a nozzle spray on an ordinary atomizer. The idea is to have bottle 5 and its parts about as easy to put in place for operation and take it out of place and put another one in, as it would be to take a hat from its hook and hang up another in its place.

Sometimes it is desirable to have a cold spray for the throat. In such a case the patient can inhale from pipe outlet 22; then air will bubble up through the solution in bottle 5, being drawn by the low pressure created in the space above and atmospheric pressure down pipe 16 from larger bottle 9.

With the device as shown in Fig. 1 it will now be clear that one can carry it to the side or" the patient, connect it to a current outlet and. operate for spraying, steaming and inhaling purposes, and with real advantages over the elaborate devices doctors now have in their ofices and also over the crude inefiicient devices heretofore constructed for home use. The latter are usually bciling devices that have no separation of vapors and need to have the parts dismantled for servicing. After all, a device to treat colds, etc. needs to be used for the most part in the home. It is with this in View particularly that I have made the device as a portable household tool about as easy and simple to use as it can be. And yet this device, designed for household use primarily, has many improvements in it which will serve in doctors ofiices and hospitals better than the tools now used there.

Having disclosed my invention and its mode of operation I desire to claim it in as broad a spirit as the prior art will permit and also in its particular details of construction.

I claim:

1. A device for the purposes described comprising a water bottle, a medicine bottle of smaller size, a tight cover for each bottle, pipe means extending from near the bottom of the small bottle through its cover and penetrating the cover of the large bottle, a delivery spout carried by the cover of the small bottle, an electric heater of the immersion type carried by the cover of the large bottle, capped inlet means in each cover for supplying their liquids without removing the covers, a restricted outlet from said pipe means below the cover of the small bottle to prevent siphoning and to emit a part of the vapor formed in the water bottle above the liquid in the medicine bottle.

2. A device for medical treatment of the type in which water vapor is formed in one vessel and passed through a second vessel containing medicament, comprising a single base having two relatively shallow sockets and a carrying handle, a pair or" transparent glass vessels, one adapted to receive water and the other to receive liquid medicament, said vessels being each received in one of the sockets and projecting above the socket walls so that their contents are visilole, a cover detachably connected to each of the vessels, a tube removably connected to the cover of the water containing vessel and passing through the cover of the medicament containing vessel to a point below the level of the liquid medicament contained therein and thus to permit water vapor to bubble up through said medicament, said medicament vessel being removable irom the tray Without removing the water vessel so as to permit change of the medicament without necessitating the cessation of the Water heating operation, an electric heater positioned to heat the water contained in the water containing Vessel, a vapor outlet from the cover of the medicament containing vessel, and a normally closed filling opening formed on each of said covers whereby when the contents in either of the vessels is depleted as determined visually through its transparent glass walls said contents may be replenished without interrupting the operation or" the device or removing the vessels from their sockets.

THOMAS B. STEPHENSON. 

